We spend at least 12 years in school, more if you decide to attend college, and you come out not knowing how to do some basic life things. But thank God, we know the Pythagorean theorem.
Once you get out into the real world, you will find that you may not know how to do basic things, unless your parents taught you how. School should teach useful things, things you will use in everyday life, instead of a complicated math theory you may use twice.
These 5 things you probably didn’t learn in school but should have.
Finance
How many students come out of high school knowing how to balance a checkbook, how to do taxes, manage their credit, budget their money, buy a house, etc.? Not many. Probably less than one percent. Granted, most banking is online now, and you can see everything you spent in that online statement, but it is still helpful to know. Once students graduate high school, many go to college and live in apartments on their own. They should know how to balance their bills, sign up for a credit card, and more.
Home Economics
If you are a millennial reading this, you most likely did not have a home-economics class in school. Back when our parents went to school, home-ec was a class students took that taught them basic life skills- cooking/baking, sewing, household chores, etc. However, the class became outdated because it was basically teaching women how to be a ‘housewife.’ Nowadays, everyone could take it and it could be useful for the future. The male equivalent back then would be shop class, which everyone should also know how to do.
Job Hunting
Do you know how to properly write a resume, cover letter, or thank you letter? If you do, great, but many people struggle with getting jobs because they don’t know these skills. Knowing how to prepare for a job interview and where to find jobs, how to follow-up after interviews and more. The purpose of school is to prepare students to get a job, but do they really teach them that? If you take a business class, they may gloss over it, but more time should be spent teaching you how to get a job.
Sexual Education / Health
Most health classes in school taught about weight management and exercise, smoking and drinking, a little bit on first aid, food and nutrition, and STD’s. What they don’t teach is the importance of mental health and how to deal with it, menstruation, sexuality, safe-sex, pregnancy, and more. Many people come out of health class knowing about blood alcohol level, but don’t know many other important life things.
Ethics
Ethics is moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. It teaches concepts of right and wrong behavior and while some schools teach morality in religion or sociology in college, not everyone takes it. It should be taught to be accepting of everyone, not matter their gender, race, sexuality, etc. With everything going on in the world today, it would be nice for people to have a class on ethics, so there wouldn’t be as many fights